AAV toolkit for axolotl nervous system

The axolotl, which can regenerate injuries to the central and peripheral nervous system, is an emerging model system to study neural circuit regeneration. Most findings in this model come from using classical tracers and imaging techniques, which present important limitations. Therefore, there is a need for new tools to efficiently label and/or manipulate cells in the axolotl nervous system and capture neural circuit regeneration. Studies in rodents and other mammals have frequently used recombinant adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) for targeted gene delivery in the nervous system, facilitating both circuit identification and functional circuit analysis. However, there are still no reports of AAV-mediated gene delivery to axolotl nervous system tissue. A new study in PNAS presents a set of AAV serotypes for efficient gene delivery in the axolotl nervous system, which could facilitate the study of nervous system regeneration. The findings notably show that while AAV8, AAV9, AAVRG and AAVPHP.eB are most suited to label neurons of the axolotl brain, AAV8, AAV9, and AAVPHP.eB are also suited to label cells of the spinal cord, with AAV9 being also the most suitable to label retinal cells.

Original reference: Lust, K. & Tanaka, E.M. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 122, e2421373122 (2025)